Poor but Rich
by Colhan3000
Summary: People have diffrent images when they hear the words poor and rich. However Luffy also knows that you could have all the money in the world...and be poor in what he feels matters most in life: Family.


_I'm BAAACCCCKKKKK!_

_**I do not own One Piece. All rights relating to the **__**Manga**__** series and Anime**__** belong to **__**Eiichiro**____**Oda**____**FUNImation**__** owns dubbing rights. **_

**In my first day of classes my professor said something to me and my classmates: "The poorest person in the world is someone with no imagination"**** and this story clicked into my head almost immediately! While the story doesn't match my professors little speech it is somewhat a little bit the same as the message…I guess… **

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**Poor but ****Rich**

When people think of or hear the word "rich" people tend to have different mental pictures... same with the word "poor"

Some people think of people dressed in fancy outfits when they hear the word rich. Of women wearing fancy dresses and a lot of jewelry and living in really huge houses. Luffy had seen these types…most of them he had met hadn't been very friendly except to other rich people. What was the word that Ace had used? Snobs? Yeah it was snobs. The nice blond girl in Ussop's villages was one of the few rich people who were really nice. She had been nice and didn't wear anything fancy or anything; she was one of the few rich people Luffy had met that was friendly, not that Luffy didn't think there were nice rich people, of course there were nice rich people. There was good and bad in everything and if there were mean rich people then there had to be nice rich people.

Same went for poor people. There were good and bad poor people too. Some poor people Luffy had met had developed a sour and mean perspective of the world around them due to their current situation in life. These types would lash out at everyone around them…sometimes even to those who want to help them. When people hear the word poor they also think of people dressed in tattered raggedy clothing and living out in the streets. But just like rich people there were both good and bad. That was the type his family was.

Granted their family wasn't great money wise when he was growing up in Fushia Village…but Luffy and Ace were nothing like that. They had lived in a small two story house in the farming district of their village. It had a small kitchen, a bathroom so tiny the Ofuro, sink and toilet could barely fit a living room that was small but cozy that had the creaky staircase leading up to the second floor where two bedrooms were. But he and Ace never sat angry at the world around them for some of the financial problems they had faced. Instead of falling into anger and depression they had fallen on each other's company, looking for comfort in each other during the times when things seemed it's bleakest. There were poor people like that too that Luffy had met or seen, like him and Ace they cherished what was most important.

Granted that money was indeed important to by things such as food, but it was nice and reassuring to have loved ones to help you through the worse of it.

That was why Luffy didn't see him and Ace as actually poor when they were younger…poor in the money department at times yes, luckily Makino always let him and Ace eat for free at the Party's Bar…but they were rich in what mattered. You could always get money somehow and some way, but it took a lot of searching to find good friends. Makino was a good friend who cared about him and Ace and worried about them and even played games with them. Ace was his brother, his Niichan who had been there to witness him come into the world. Ace had looked after him, helped him learn how to fight, comforted him when he was scared and beat up the bullies in their village who seemed to make it their life's goal to make him miserable as much as possible. The companionship and love he got from those most dear to him far outweighed any amount of Beri.

Luffy, who was sitting in his usual spot on the figurehead of the Going Merry, turned away from the sparkling scene of the ocean to look at the scene on the ship.

Sanji had just twirled out of the kitchen with a tray carrying two drinks on it for Nami and Robin. Sanji, who was looking at the girls at the time didn't notice Zoro who was asleep and tripped right over him, the tray and drinks went flying and spilled all over Nami who let out an ear piercing shriek. Zoro and Sanji on the other hand had started their rituals that normally lead to one of their fights. Swearing and throwing insults at one another before Nami punched both of them in the head threatening to add even more to their debts to go along with the money she already added for ruining her outfit. Down on the deck Ussop who had been working on another experiment, had jumped in surprise from Sanji and Zoro's yelling, spilling too much of some chemical into the test tubes resulting in an explosion that could possibly rival a Sea Kings roar. Ussop started yelling about his hands being burned and Chopper came rushing from where ever he had been yelling for a doctor. Ussop who had been running around tripped on Chopper, the two fell on the deck resulting in Ussop breaking his nose in a perfect ninety degree angle. Through this entire scene of insanity Robin looked on with her usual silent smile before going back to her book.

Looking at the mayhem below him transpiring on the ship Luffy smiled.

They didn't have much money; they rarely had much money, Luffy was more than sure that he and the rest of his crew was indeed rich in something he personally found more precious then Beri, gold or jewels. Sure there were arguments and fights…but what family didn't have these things? Their bond; the bond that they all shared through their time together as Nakama that had been formed and strengthened throughout all their adventures, during the good and the bad times they had gone through. It was more than proof enough that any of them, despite their differences, arguments and disagreements would do everything in their power to help one another. Their loyally and friendship born from Nakamaship, the strongest bond a crew could have that all of them, Luffy included of course, felt strongly every day. Looking again at his friends; who had now calmed and gone back to what they had been doing before the moment of insanity exploded on the ship…Luffy's smile widened.

Yes…they were very rich in what mattered most.

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DONE! Oh and happy New Years! Even though its late Happy Holidays too. Its 2008!


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